The show, a Repertorio Español production, has parallel narratives set in the 1950s, skillfully evoked in Susan Zeeman Rogers’s set design; period mambo from Pérez Prado and others; and especially Leni Mendez’s costumes. (The show, in Spanish, has in-seat English captioning.)

The first thread concerns the 18-year-old Mario (Pablo Andrade), a law student and news writer at a radio station in Lima, Peru. Mario is smitten with his vivacious 32-year-old aunt, Julia (Dalia Davi), who is not related by blood. She has moved in with Mario and his retiring aunt and uncle (Zulema Clares and Germán Jaramillo) after a divorce in Bolivia. Mario’s buddy Javier (Christian López Lamelas) offers amused but encouraging counsel.

The second thread depicts Mario’s bond with the obsessive Pedro Camacho (Luis Carlos de La Lombana), who writes the station’s hit soap operas and nurtures Mario’s aspirations toward a literary life. Pedro’s fractious relationships with his actors (Ana Margarita Martínez-Casado and Gerardo Gudiño), as well as with the station manager (Alfonso Rey), offer this play’s director, José Zayas, a wide berth for broad comedy. And Mr. de La Lombana, hunched over in a black bowler and bottle-cap spectacles, fills it to the hilt, his portrayal a cartoon of demonstrative excesses. And yet, as Mario ages and radio is eclipsed by television, Mr. de La Lombana squeezes poignancy out of Pedro’s dimming cognition.

The most compelling story belongs to Mario and Julia, who meet surreptitiously in cafes and cinemas to flirt and discuss films and literature. Mr. Andrade’s Mario is an articulate, at times petulant intellectual inclined to quote Plutarch. But it’s Ms. Davi — whose Julia is sensual yet sensible, feminine yet flinty, embodying poise and intelligence — who generates the star power. The conclusion offers a future that Julia has largely foreseen. Which comes as no surprise.